Brits could face daily charge to visit Tenerife as thousands gather for mass protest demanding ‘tourists go home’
BRITS could face a daily ‘tourist tax’ to visit the Canary Islands after anti-tourist protestors demanded a freeze on holidaymakers.
The Canary Islands president spoke out about a daily charge as tens of thousands of angry residents took to the streets to rage against the industry.
President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has warned that a daily cost for visitors could be on the table.
Politicians are under pressure following this weekend’s marches as residents are demanding restrictions on the lucrative tourism industry.
An angry anti-tourist movement has been gaining moment throughout the popular holiday hotspot islands in recent months.
Bitter graffiti has even popped up telling Brits to “go home” and reading “your paradise, our misery”.
While not included in current plans, Clavijo said the government is willing to look at suggestions of a three euro per night charge.
He said last Friday: “It is true that the ecotax is not included in the government program, but it is also true that we are willing to discuss it; the government will always engage in dialogue.”
Tourists visiting the equally popular Balearic islands – including Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza – already pay between one and four euro per day if over 16.
Tenerife particularly has gone to bat against sun-seeking Brits who have called hotels on the island out of fear they may not be safe on their upcoming holidays.
And unofficial signs reading “closed to tourists” have been plastered around beaches to keep visitors out.
Residents of the sun-soaked destination have said they are “fed-up” of “low quality” Brit tourists who only come for the cheap beer, burgers and sunbathing.
Yesterday around 20,000 people filled a square in Tenerife capital Santa Cruz brandishing banners including some that read “You enjoy we suffer” in English.
Blowing horns and waving flags, they held banners that read: “People live here” and “We don’t want to see our island die”.
The marches were organised across Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Madrid and Malaga under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit.”
Marchers are demanding authorities axe major tourism projects – including one for a five-star hotel in Tenerife.
They blame environmental issues, traffic problems and the housing crisis on mass tourism on the islands.
Other demands from the government include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners, who joined the protest in Santa Cruz as they insisted to local press: “We are not slaves.”
Organisers claim the march hit up to 50,000 participators yesterday.
Some British holidaymakers have shown their support for the issues raised by the islanders but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.
One Brit, Ellie Taylor, told The Sun: “Half the restaurants would not be open if it wasn’t for us.”
Another disgruntled sun-seeker has put it more simply, scrawling beside some of the graffiti: “F*** off.
“We pay your wages!”
And not all officials in the island are on board with the raging anti-tourist sentiment.
Tourism minister Jessica de Leon urged British holidaymakers not to cancel their holidays ahead of yesterday’s demos.
And Jorge Marichal, a hotel chain boss in Tenerife, revealed that Brits were ringing up out of fear they would not be safe on their holidays to the island.
He said: “One of the problems I am facing is that clients are beginning to call and ask what’s happening here and whether it’s safe.”
While the hotel owner said he understands the pain of local people, he added that being “anti-tourist” is not the way to go in.
“It pains me because people confuse the message. We don’t have to be anti-tourist. What we have to do is demand infrastructure that matches the tourist model that’s been chosen,” he said.
President Clavijo has expressed his own concerns at the movement already, begging holidaymakers to keep coming.